


there and back again

by towine (blacktreecle)



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Cuddles, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Kingdom Hearts III
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-02-19
Packaged: 2019-10-31 12:06:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17849147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blacktreecle/pseuds/towine
Summary: Terra can’t sleep.





	there and back again

**Author's Note:**

> i love terra. i love his strong arms and pretty face and big, soft heart. this will hopefully not be the last terra/wayfinder trio centric fic of mine, but for now, i needed to soothe my post-kh3 heart with cuddles. if that's what you're looking for, i hope you enjoy this!
> 
> as always, thank you [allie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/artenon) for the speedy beta!

Terra can’t sleep.

His old room in the Land of Departure hasn’t changed much over ten years besides the thick layer of dust lying over everything. Earlier tonight when they first stepped inside, Aqua pulled new blankets from the closet and laid them down on the bed for him, urged him to rest with a gentle touch to his shoulder, then retreated to her own room.

That was hours ago.

Lying under the covers made Terra feel too constricted, too smothered, so he tries lying on top of them instead. The clock on the wall quietly ticks in time with the pounding of exhaustion in his skull. He squeezes his eyes shut, willing them to stay closed. His hand fists in the sheets, holding on like he’s afraid of slipping away.

“Try to relax,” Aqua told him earlier. She smiled, then. He’s missed her smile so much.

He can feel it, the first tugs of sleep. Slowly, his fist uncurls. His eyelids loosen, his body relaxes. His thoughts begin to drift.

The room is dark.

It is dark—and ready to swallow him.

He jolts awake. Violently.

The sheets twist beneath him. He shoots up into a sitting position. His breathing is loud and ragged, filling the emptiness of the room. He slaps a hand over his mouth, his fingers scrabbling for the bindings that have always been there.

But there is nothing.

There is nothing. Just himself.

It takes a moment for his eyes to adjust to his surroundings, to see the familiar outlines of furniture and books and trinkets. His room. His things. Forgotten for years, but still his.

He draws a knee up to his chest, drops his forehead onto it. He waits for his breathing to even out.

“Terra?”

Terra startles and looks at the door that he didn’t realize had opened.

Ven pokes his head inside, his gold hair now the brightest thing in the room. Terra can’t see the details of his face very well in the darkness, but the concern in his voice is clear enough.

“You okay?” Ven shuffles in a little more, and Terra almost smiles at the sight of his moogle pajamas.

“I’m fine,” Terra says, dropping his legs over the side of the bed and facing Ven properly. “Just having trouble falling asleep, that’s all.”

“Is it too dark in here?” Ven asks. “I think I still have a nightlight hidden somewhere.”

“It’s fine. Besides, I’m a little too old for a nightlight.”

“There’s no shame in it!” Ven wags a finger at him. “Come on. It’s star shaped, it’s cool.”

“Are you sure you’re not the one who wants it?” Terra asks amusedly.

“No! Ugh, just stay here while I go get it.” Ven pops out of the room, grumbling something Terra thinks sounds vaguely insulting. When he returns, sure enough he has the nightlight in his hand.

He plugs it into an outlet, and it barely fills that corner of the room with light. But it’s a warm light, yellow-orange like Terra’s Wayfinder charm. Terra has to admit he feels a little better without the darkness pressing in on all sides.

“See?” Ven gestures at it. “Cool.”

Terra smiles. “Alright, you got me.”

He pats the space on the bed next to him, and Ven sits down.

“So,” Terra says. “What are you doing up so late?”

“Can’t fall asleep either.” Ven flops back so he’s lying down, legs dangling over the edge of the bed, arms folded behind his head. “Like, I literally can’t sleep. I don’t know if I’ll ever sleep again.”

“You’ll sleep eventually,” Terra reassures. “But I get it if you can’t fall asleep tonight. You’ve been out for a long time.”

“Yeah.” Ven tilts his head towards him. “But what about you? Were you napping all those years like me?”

He knows Ven’s just trying to broach the topic lightly, and he appreciates it. But the smile that rises to Terra’s lips is humorless.

“No,” he says. “I was… fighting. All the time. I just never won until now.” He looks at Ven, who watches him with bright eyes. “Because I didn’t have you guys.”

Silence, then Ven says slowly, “Are you still fighting?”

Terra looks away towards the darker corner of the room, half-expecting Xehanort to emerge from the shadows like he always does.

“I guess I’m just too used to it,” he says.

Ven doesn’t say anything for a moment, and the wall clock _tick tick ticks_ in the space that stretches between them. Then Ven sits up, abruptly enough that Terra jumps a little in surprise, and walks over to Terra’s closet.

“Ven?”

Ven yanks the door open and starts digging inside, gathering another blanket and an extra pillow in his arms. He drops them onto Terra’s bed then pushes Terra back down onto the mattress.

“Hey!” Terra squawks.

Ven fluffs his pillow a few times before placing it next to Terra’s own, then he flops down next to him, bony elbows digging into Terra’s side.

“Guess I gotta stay here tonight,” Ven says, stretching his limbs and looking very comfortable with taking more than half of Terra’s already narrow bed.

“You don’t have to do that,” Terra says, trying to untangle the blanket that was dumped on him.

“Sure I do. You said you couldn’t win without us, right?”

He pauses, blinking at Ven. “I… Yes.”

“Then I’ll stay with you now, too.”

Ven frowns in that determined way he does. It almost looks like a pout except for the light that burns in his eyes. Terra has also missed this.

“I thought you couldn’t sleep,” he says.

“Exactly. If anything shows up, I’ll be here to fight it.”

Terra feels a telltale burn behind his eyes. He drops a hand onto the crown of Ven’s head, ruffling the hair there so Ven can’t see the way his mouth fights against a trembling smile.

Ven doesn’t complain about it. Perhaps he’s missed some things, too.

The blanket doesn’t feel so stifling over Terra anymore. His head suddenly feels a little harder to lift from the pillow, his eyelids a little heavier.

“Don’t worry,” Ven says. “I’ll be awake.”

“You sure?” Terra’s voice goes soft with sleepiness. “You know, you were always bad at staying up late, no matter how much you insisted you weren’t tired.”

“Hey, that’s different!” Ven crosses his arms indignantly. “I’ve been sleeping for ten years, I’m seriously not even a little tired.”

“If you say so.” Terra grins.

“Just go to sleep,” Ven huffs, tugging the blanket up to his chin while Terra laughs quietly.

When the laughter subsides, Terra blinks sleepily at the ceiling above him, staring at the point where the shadows and the glow of the nightlight meet. This reminds him of old times. Ven can get lost talking about all sorts of things, and more than once did he fall asleep beside Terra mid-conversation. Instead of moving him back to his own room, Terra would just let him stay.

Beside him, Ven shifts a few times, curls up as he likes to do when he gets under the covers. Terra isn’t sure if he’s awake or not until he hears a snort followed by the sound of Ven’s even breathing.

“I knew it,” Terra whispers.

There’s a gentle knock. He turns his head.

Aqua stands in the doorframe where Ven left the door open. She looks tired, but there’s a smile on her face and a question in her eyes. Terra tells her to come in with a tilt of his head and she pads over, her steps whisper-quiet. She takes a seat on the edge of the bed.

“He said he wouldn’t fall asleep,” Terra tells her quietly.

“Of course he did,” she laughs, smoothing the curled hair at the top of Ven’s head. “He’s always like that.”

Terra takes a moment to watch her, the way her hair catches the light, the warmth in her gaze as she looks at Ven.

Then he says, “Did we wake you?”

“It’s okay.” She smiles. “I always sleep light.”

His stomach tightens when he hears it. “Ah.”

But there is no sadness in her smile. She removes her hand from Ven’s hair and hovers over Terra’s own hand, and while some hesitance stops her from bridging the distance, Terra slips his fingers between hers, squeezing tight. Aqua breathes a shaky exhale. Her eyes shine in a way that Terra knows preludes tears.

“It’s okay,” he says quickly, because he can’t help but panic. “We’re here.”

“Yes,” Aqua says, sniffling. “I’m so glad.”

Terra rubs a thumb over her knuckles, feeling the scars there, the years of fighting. He tugs her hand.

“Come on,” he says. “You look tired.”

“Oh no, there’s hardly any room as it is. There’s no way I’ll fit.”

“We can make room,” he insists.

“Yeah!” Ven chimes in.

They look in surprise at Ven who’s turned to face them, awake now, if only barely. His hair is even messier with sleep. His eyes squint in the just-woke-up kind of way, but his hand doesn’t miss when he reaches out to tug on the sleeve of Aqua’s sleep shirt.

“You gotta sleep too, Aqua,” he says.

“I can go back to my room, it’s okay.”

“Nooo,” he complains, “stay.”

Terra’s thumb finds her wrist, feels the delicate pulse there beneath the warmth of her skin.

He says, “Stay.”

Aqua stares, eyes wandering over them like she still has trouble believing this isn’t a dream. But then Ven tugs her sleeve again, and the smile she gives holds all the warmth of a sunrise.

“Okay,” she says. “Scoot over.”

Ven presses up against the wall, Aqua climbs over Terra and settles down between them. Her knee jabs into Terra’s middle for a quick, painful moment and she apologizes profusely while Terra wheezes. Ven just laughs, throwing his arms around Aqua’s middle and curling in like a cat. The blanket stretches, barely holding them all. Terra’s feet poke out the bottom.

And Terra knows, without a doubt, that this is how it should be.

“You okay?” Aqua whispers to him, breath ghosting over his cheeks in the faintest caress. Ven has already begun snoring.

Terra drapes an arm over them all. Then he tilts his head forward, just enough to touch his forehead to Aqua’s.

“Yes,” he says, and means it.

The sleep that finally comes is warm, and peaceful, and feels like home.

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading!
> 
> catch me on [twitter](twitter.com/blacktreecle)!


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